Inspiration Sunday October 2, 2011

Happy October!


Here's a photo of what I see out my bedroom window:

The colors are now past their peak, and the leaves are rapidly falling from the trees, creating a crunchy carpet underfoot.







My challenge: For any new followers, I am  creating a painting, hopefully each Sunday, following the Artist's Muse by Betsy Dillard Stroud. Each week I choose 1 or 2 cards from the three card decks included, and follow the instructions.

card 1:- do an unlimited palette painting using at least 12 pigments. To finish, glaze over all or part of the painting to coalesce the composition
card 2:- compose the entire painting as though it were a pattern

My inspiration: leaves gathered on my daily walk

beginning with three shades of yellow

adding greens, and golds, and a touch of burnt sienna

With watercolours, I painted  the underside of each maple leaf, pressed it onto the damp watercolor paper, topped it with waxed paper, added weights, and set it aside to dry.

 Once dry, and the waxed paper removed, I mixed indigo blue with various shades of green, outlined each leaf, and softened the edge with a damp brush.

 a closer look

all the leaves outlined

the Reveal.  Can you see the veins and texture of each leaf?




on the leaf in the lower left corner, I used acrylic paint, applied thickly. The result was not as crisp as with the watercolours.

The leaf veins and texture show up nicely. The underpainting glows.







I think all the many colors work with the leaf pattern.

I chose not to glaze over the painting, as this might cause bleeding of the strong colours.





Next Challenge:
card 1:- Set up a still life. Paint it abstractly
card 2:- use a sgraffito technique: coat your paper with gesso. Lay down 5 layers of paint, scraping through in places to show the previous layer. After the final coat has dried, you can glaze the entire surface with transparent paint.

Hope you're having a lovely Sunday.
Thanks for visiting.
Hugs from Suz